Supreme Master Ching Hai honored with sustainability award. Coinciding with the UN Climate Change Conference in Durban, South Africa, the World Pilot Hero Award was presented in recognition of the remarkable efforts of governments, organizations and individuals in advocating low-cost, convenient and highly beneficial solutions to reduce global warming.

In a ceremony co-hosted by the Environmental Protection Authority of Ethiopia, the government of Guinea Bissau, and the Philippine Climate Change Commission, award presenters included European Parliament Member Sir Graham Watson and Philippine Climate Change Commissioner, Heherson Alvarez. Among the recipients were Mayor Patricia de Lille of Cape Town, South Africa for implementing a weekly citywide meat-free day, Vegan Day Platform Formosa for their volunteer movement in Formosa (Taiwan), and founder of the South African Moholoholo Wildlife Rehabilitation Center Mr. Brian Jones for his efforts in animal and nature conservation.

Sir Graham Watson – UK Member of European Parliament (M): We’re all trying to save the planet, but some people are coming up with particularly good ideas, or are devoting themselves entirely to that work. I think it is right that their efforts should be recognized and celebrated.

VOICE: Also honored with a sustainable development award was Supreme Master Ching Hai for her role as a “world leader in climate change actions,” in particular through inspiring Supreme Master Television as a global constructive media channel that provides information especially on the vegan solution to halting the effects of global warming.

Cecile Guidote-Alvarez - President, International Theatre Institute, Director, UNESCO Dreams Center (F): I particularly know Master Ching Hai and I'm aware of her humanitarian activities and her concern to protect the environment, and to use media as a very important communications tool.

VOICE: Many attending the event also spoke about the award’s support of the organic vegan diet solution to climate change.

Dr. Tewolde Berhan Gebre Egziabher Yohannes – Environmental Protection Ethiopia (M): In the context of climate change, vegan food would definitely mean both that the world would sustain many more of us, and two, those many more of us would still have less of an impact than the present smaller number meat-eating population.

Heherson Alvarez – Philippine Climate Change Commissioner (M): The answer seems to be simple, if we can awaken to the fact that we can change our diet and make our lives safe.

VOICE: Congratulations, laureates of the World Pilot Hero Award for your deserved distinctions. Our respectful gratitude also to Supreme Master Ching Hai, whose Earth-saving endeavors bring hope and inspiration to humanity. Let us unite to put into practice the comprehensively sustainable organic vegan ideal, for all lives to flourish.

Melting methane hydrates may have triggered runaway warming millions of years ago. Researchers from Rice University in the USA have been working to solve the mystery of the event known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), which occurred 56 million years ago.

At that time, a sudden release of 2,500 gigatons of carbon into the atmosphere led to an increase in global temperatures of 6 degrees Celsius on average, which in turn caused the extinction of many species.

In their study, the scientists found that methane hydrates similar to those that are now frozen beneath the sea floor could have melted and released the carbon. Although the oceans at that time were likely warmer, author Dr. George Hirasaki stated that this could have actually accelerated the methane formation.

These findings have implications for our current environment, where global warming is already raising the temperatures of both the atmosphere and the oceans, increasing the possibility of such a catastrophic release.

In addition, a recent study by international scientists has found that thawing permafrost in the Arctic represents a threat of methane release that is potentially 5 times greater than previously realized.

Our thanks, Dr. Hirasaki, colleagues and other researchers, for these findings that speak to the urgency of our current climate situation. May we swiftly adopt actions in harmony with nature to preserve all lives on Earth.

During a September 2008 radio interview with Bob Lebensold of Environmentally Sound Radio, Supreme Master Ching Hai spoke with concern of the toxic gases in the seabed as she reminded of our need to halt human-generated warming.

Supreme Master Ching Hai: You look all that and you see already because the methane gas and hydrogen sulfide result from animal raising, and that produces a lot of toxic gas into the air and it warms the atmosphere.Then the atmosphere melts the ice and the ocean will warm, and then more methane and other toxins will be released from the bottom of the ocean and permafrost and all that. And then it will be like a devil’s circle.

And we even might die from gas, not to talk about global warming yet. And right now, there’s so much methane already released into the atmosphere, many people have more mental illness or other physical suffering, according to scientists’ research. I hope we stop it quick.

As of December 3, 2011, a prolonged drought coupled with extremely high hay prices has resulted in thousands of horses and donkeys being abandoned on roadsides in Texas, USA, with organizations such as Safe Haven Equine Rescue saying that their calls for emergency help have quadrupled.